


Meeting Once, Meeting Twice

by TheLizardWriter



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Happy Ending, Love at First Sight, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 16:05:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLizardWriter/pseuds/TheLizardWriter
Summary: Freed begrudgingly works at a record store. Laxus collects records from every city he visits. They meet, love ensues.





	Meeting Once, Meeting Twice

A music store wasn’t quite the place that Freed desired to work. He wanted a job which required brains, but while he was in school, he needed a little extra cash. As a result, he ended up sitting behind a counter, which was ever so messily covered in various bands’ stickers, on a Sunday afternoon scribbling his thoughts in a notebook, rather than relaxing at home with a cup of tea and his laptop. His hair was tied up into a ponytail, which rested high on his head yet still cascaded like a green waterfall down his back. 

Unfortunately, due to his long, dyed hair and the fact that his bangs covered the side of his face which faced the door, he often got mistaken for a woman. He never quite understood it. Hair didn’t make a woman after all. On this particular day, he had one guy whistle at him upon entry, but when Freed spoke up, the guy sheepishly backed out the door. That made three ‘admirers’ during that week. It was only Wednesday. 

Freed was never the one to like others though. For all of the men who had mistakenly flirted with him (Some intentionally as well) and all the girls who asked him to go on a date with them, Freed simply never saw the attraction of, well… Attraction. He didn’t want to dedicate his life to anyone else. He decided that he simply needed to focus on his studies and he would ponder why he didn’t feel the need to attract human companionship later in life. 

His siblings always told him that he needed to find someone, but one of them was a pervert and the other was a little stuck up herself, so Freed never really took their words to heart. He didn’t really think that people were of too much use to him. They always wanted him to come to bars with them, then teased him for ordering tea. They wanted him to go to football games and clubs and parties. They wanted him to like the music he found atrocious and commonplace. They wanted him to be someone who he was not, so he decided to be himself, by himself. 

So why was it, on this particular Wednesday, that he felt his heart tugging at his chest when he saw a particularly buff looking blonde trot into the record store? The man looked like the type that Freed would scoff at - probably a bodybuilder or something barbaric as such. However, as much as he truly _wanted _to hold disdain for the man, who instantly walked over to the local section, Freed simply felt his heart beat faster.__

__He didn’t realize he was staring until he saw the blonde look up at him and give a quick smile. A smile looked nice on the brute’s face, Freed decided, despite the fact that the man had a nasty scar running the length of his face. Probably from some sort of brutish activities, Freed desperately attempted to control his thoughts to hate and disdain._ _

__While the man flipped through albums lazily, as if he had nothing better to do, he and Freed continued to sneak looks at one another. It seemed to Freed that every time he glanced up from his writing (which had slowed immensely since his heart began to speed up), the man was looking back. Sometimes it was a discreet glance - eyes diverted from an album he was pretending to look at - while other times his looks were more direct. Freed didn’t have quite the tact to hide his looks professionally, so instead he simply held his notebook up to cover half of his face and stared directly at the man._ _

__This little game continued until the man finally approached Freed with a record he barely even looked at, for he apparently much favored watching Freed. He casually placed it on the counter and said, “Nice to meet you,” nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t been staring at the green haired blushing man for what seemed like years._ _

__“F-Free-F-F,” Freed sputtered, struggling to spit out his name at the obviously older man, who scrunched his eyebrows slightly and stared at him._ _

__“Nah, I ain’t taking it for free,” he responded, waving the album under Freed’s scanner for him. “Make sure to breathe.”_ _

__“N-n-no,” Freed struggled once more to get any words out, burying his face in his hands as he cursed himself internally for his social ineptitude. “My name,” he practically yelled his words as he squeezed them out before he could let his anxiety overtake him._ _

__“Your name is Free?” The man chuckled, leaning on the counter as if the man in front of him weren’t completely breaking down._ _

__“P-pretty much,” Freed answered, staring through his fingers at what he could see of the man in front of him._ _

__“Laxus,” the man replied with another charming chuckle as he pointed one thumb at himself._ _

__Freed lifted his head up to look at the man a little closer. His forehead glistened with a thin layer of sweat, despite the fact that the shop was fairly chilly for a summer day. He wore a smile which tilted a little higher on one side than the other, possibly due to the scar which cut across one side of his face. Freed longed to run his fingers across it, possibly ask where it came from, but instead, he simply sputtered out the first thing that came to mind, “F-four dollars, f-fif-fifty five c-cents.”_ _

__He was practically on the verge of hyperventilating as the man in front of him dug in his pocket for his wallet. “You seem like quite the shy one to be working a register, huh?”_ _

__“N-Not usual-” Freed paused a second to catch his breath, which simply kept being stolen by his social ineptitude, “Not usually.”_ _

__“Ah, so you must be just stunned by me, right?” The man laughed afterwards, causing Freed to feel a pang of something else in his chest - fear. What if the entire staring game was made up in his mind? What if the blonde simply looked at him because he looked at the blonde first? Freed simply stared at him for a few seconds, causing the man, Laxus as he said, to rub the back of his head a little and attempt a different conversation starter, “I’m visiting from out of town. I like to stop by record stores and pick up something local everywhere I go.”_ _

__“This is a record store,” Freed spat out, luckily managing not to stutter at all, but his sentence was so utterly basic that as an English major, he couldn’t help but wince slightly. “I live in town.”_ _

__“Umm, yeah, I’d hope as such,” Laxus replied, laughing a little more. “You’re quite the comical guy.” He finished up paying for his record, but simply stood there for a few second more._ _

__“I, umm, I just want,” Freed struggled to form words that he wanted to speak. All he wanted was the blond man’s phone number, but his brain would not let him get his words out._ _

__“We could maybe go,” Laxus started to speak, his words careful and calculated when compared to his previously casually spoken words. “Umm,” it was his turn to lose words, “I have to leave town tomorrow, but, maybe.”_ _

__“I work till eleven,” Freed mumbled, blushing profusely once he realized what the older man was attempting to propose._ _

__“Damn,” the man replied, laying his head on his hands as Freed was merely moments ago._ _

__Freed scrambled to use this time away from his piercing gaze to scribble down something in his notebook and tear out the page. He handed it to Laxus wordlessly, who grinned as soon as he saw what was written. “It has a d at the end,” he mumbled, “Freed. I’ll call.” With that, the man was gone and Freed was both able to breathe again and not able to at all. He slid down against the wall behind the counter, pulling a poster or two down with him._ _

__He took his phone out as if his mystery man would call immediately, but instead dialed his brother’s phone number. “Bicklsow, I think I might like someone,” he blurted out as soon as his brother answered. They ended up having a long (And perverted on one side of the conversation) talk about the fact that Freed actually found someone who made his heart beat faster than any others. They talked while Freed simply sat slumped against the wall, standing up only when the rare customer wandered in._ _

__The only problem? He didn't call. He didn’t call that night, the next night, or even in the next month. Not over the next year, or the year after that. Freed graduated school after a year of not receiving a call from a blonde he _thought _was charming. He moved halfway across the country so he could simply use his English major to write in peace, save for the mental turmoil he felt every time he thought of the man he thought he liked once. He _knew _that he should have been over it after the second year of no calls, but he never could find another person that caused his heart to beat as fast and his fact to heat up until he was sure it’d light on fire._____ _

______Still, he carried on with his life, completing what he always thought was his life goal - writing a full novel - but which felt ever so empty as he saw everyone around him settling down into relationships and living the life he knew he’d never have. Even the sudden success of his novel didn’t feel rewarding. He longed to stay away from the prying eyes of all the strangers who read his meaningless words, as he dubbed them. He simply grew more and more detached from his life, his family, and his responsibilities._ _ _ _ _ _

______He barely left his house save for grocery runs and trips to the hair salon to get his hair dyed. Old habits die (dye?) hard, after all. It wasn’t until four years after the man hadn’t called that Freed’s publisher finally convinced him to appear in public. He had written two wildly successful novels by that point, so it was honestly a big deal to quite a lot of people that he was finally making a public appearance. What he was not expecting, however, was the man who walked up to him halfway through his hectic day of posing for pictures and signing novels._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Justine,” he heard a gruff voice say, “Your last name is Justine.” Freed looked up, eyes wide, at the man in front of him._ _ _ _ _ _

______“L-Laxus,” he said, his eyes brimming with tears as his heart finally began to beat as fast as it had that day._ _ _ _ _ _

______“God, I’ve been looking for you forever,” the man cracked a smile, showing a few lines which had developed in his face since the last time Freed saw him._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You didn’t call,” Freed mumbled his words, not wanting to attract the attention of the others standing in line behind Laxus._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’ve hated myself for years for it,” Laxus responded, as if he were simply talking about the weather, “Someone stole my wallet at the airport. I know it sounds like some stupid cop-out, but I put your little paper in my wallet… God, it’s really you.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“I waited,” Freed responded, standing up to walk around the table and stand in front of the man who was the subject of his dreams (And occasional hatred) for years._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I saved money to go back to your town. It took a year, and by then you were gone. The record store was closed. No one knew any Freed…” Laxus reached his arms out, as if he were about to wrap them around Freed, who immediately lunged into them as if they were a lifeline. “Looked for you forever, then you went and got famous, but no one knew where you lived.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Don’t leave me again,” Freed mumbled, squeezing the man in front of him, as he had longed to do for years._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Trust me, I ain't,” Laxus replied, squeezing his little author too hard for breathing to work._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I missed you,” Freed responded, looking up at his face._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I did nothing but miss you,” the man answered gruffly and quietly, in order to keep the crowd which had puddled around them from hearing. The two of them slunk out the back, abandoning the bookstore to the protest of the crowd which desired to meet Freed and get his signature. They just wanted some alone time with the other who they had longed to be with for years._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I love you,” Freed mumbled as they walked out._ _ _ _ _ _

______“A bit straightforward, are’t we?” Laxus asked, chuckling, but eventually mumbling, “I think I must love you too, so I guess everything worked out okay.”_ _ _ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Ahh, this was written rather poorly but I typed a lot of it on my phone at work, so I hope you enjoy!


End file.
